From the Desk of a Pediatrician
This distinction between a public school and a residential property has been upheld in courts, it is also evident in reviewing guidelines put forth on where a new public school can be built. Schools are held to higher standard because children are required to attend.
As a society, as citizens and public servants, as parents and teachers, it is our responsibility to ensure that we are doing everything we can to protect those little lives that are entrusted to us. These little non-voting citizens need us to consider not “can we do it” but “should we do it.” Should we put a power station immediately adjacent to a school?
Most of us intuitively know the answer; if there is any doubt as to the safety of children the answer must be no.
According to the NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) study conclusion, “While the support from individual studies is weak, the epidemiological studies demonstrate a fairly consistent pattern of a small, increased risk for childhood leukemia from low frequency EMF exposure.”
Even the LADWP’s own website states, “Most, but not all, childhood studies have reported a weak association between estimates, but not direct measures, of residential magnetic field exposure and certain types of childhood cancer.”
If there is weak but consistent evidence that by allowing this station to be built next to a public school that we could cause a child who would otherwise live a normal healthy life to have childhood leukemia, how can we in good conscience even consider this location?
The presumption of safety that should be afforded to children when they enter a public school must guide our decision as a society as to the optimal location for this facility. Unless we can be certain of the safety of the facility as citizens, as public servants, and as members of the LADWP, we have no business considering exposing children to a potential hazard of this magnitude when there is any other viable option.
Corinn Cross, MD
Pediatrician and Pacific Palisades resident
Pediatrician and Pacific Palisades resident
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April 24, 2012
To Whom it May Concern,
I am a
pediatrician and author of several medical books (including one called Dangerous or Safe? What Foods, Medicines and
Chemicals Really Put Your Kids at
Risk). I have spent my entire working life advocating for children. But
most importantly, I am a mom of a kindergartner and a second grader. So when I
think about the possibility of a power distribution station next door to
Marquez Elementary School, it is the mother in me who speaks the loudest.
As I have
written and lectured repeatedly over the past several years, the jury is still
out on the link between electromagnetic radiation and illness, particularly
cancer. But the data is stacking up and major organizations—like the World
Health Organization—have written policy statements cautioning against exposure.
These warnings include every source of EMF from power stations to mobile
phones. As a result of scrutinizing this data, my kids don’t hold a cell phone
to their heads.
I
understand that our legal system is predicated on the rule: innocent until
proven guilty. When it comes to potential toxins, though, this mantra is not
only unreasonable, it is reckless. Cigarettes caused millions of cases of
cancer and asthma before they were suspected culprits, but it took millions
more before they were regulated out of public spaces. Let’s not make the same
mistake with EMF. If in fact there is never a proven link between the location
of a power station and illness, then this extra level of precaution will have
turned out to be an exercise in futility. But if the link is documented and
future generations face disease because a flat parcel of land came available
adjacent to a school, today’s convenience becomes tomorrow’s catastrophe.
Most
Sincerely,
Cara
Natterson, MD, FAAP
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